Introducing PlayStation Revelations

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We introduce a whole new feature series to remember our favorite system forever. Take a peek inside.

By IGN Staff

It's been almost six years since Sony startled the videogame world with its brash new approach and its sleek new 32-bit videogame console. Little did we know what an impact the PlayStation would have on our lives and on the videogame world forever. But it has, and it's been chronicled and reported on and played for an entire generation. The sad thing is that it's almost over. (And for some it's been over for awhile.)

That's where we come in. Being the loyal sentimentalists that we are, we have commenced on a long-running feature in which we remember some of the greatest moments in our own personal PlayStation history. But not history in general, our own and your own personal history with the PlayStation and the games you played on it. We want to distill the special times when a game changed your life, or showed you something totally new, or revealed a twist in a storyline that you had never imaged. Or...something like that.

For those of you who need examples, here are some PlayStation Revelations: Remember the time when you played 16 straight hours of Final Fantasy VII and beat the final boss and watched the ending at 5 am in the morning? Or remember the time when you attained the final car in Gran Turismo? Or how about when you finally beat Alundra? Or you finished Metal Gear Solid for the first time? Or what about the time you played so much you grew blisters on your fingers, or overheated your system, or when you smelled the fresh new plastic and metal of your system?

To start, I'll provide one of my own personal PlayStation Revelations, of which there are many.

As many of you know, I entered the PlayStation world after living and breathing Nintendo 64 for a year and a half when I edited the N64 site (www.N64.com back then), before I began covering the PlayStation. So my memories may not be as old as some of yours might be. Instead of going back to the old, old, old days, I'll only drop back a year or so and start back with Syphon Filter 2.

In the game, I entered into a level in which I had just successfully survived a full attack, where I was backed into the crevices of a dead-end tunnel. It was about 1/4 of the way into the game. I made it through the tunnel and reached the other side, where I was required to figure out how to kill an enemy leader, while not notifying any of the guards or soldiers around him. The mission seemed nearly impossible because the guard was so close, that no matter what weapon I used, the guard would notice.

After several unsuccessful attacks where I was killed, or dropped off the side of the bridge, I learned that I could hang on the side of the bridge, crawl up it, and then crouch, without being seen. I thought of something that seemed totally silly at the time, something that I thought would never work. I crawled along the side until I lined up the heads of the guard and the leader. At just the right moment -- when the guard walked up to and stood beside the leader, I pulled the trigger and blasted a bullet straight through the heads of both enemies. To my surprise, I had beat that particular section of the level! Yes! I learned that once again, the designers at Eidetic were near geniuses at level design and that pulling off what seemed the totally impossible was indeed the way to beat the level. That was the just the tip of the iceberg, too. The game proved to be totally eclectic with each new level that I played. That was when I realized what an awesome game Syphon Filter 2 was!

Do you have a PlayStation Revelation that you would like to share? Send yours into PlayStation Revelations, and if it's better than mine, we'll publish it! (Make sure to put in the headline PlayStation Revelation!)